The present invention relates to shoes for the human feet and particularly relates to a shoe for stably supporting a human foot during ambulation following surgical treatment of the user's lower extremities, commonly termed "post-op shoes", and therapeutic treatment of same for sprains, fractures and the like, herein referred to collectively as "health shoes".
It is particularly important to stably support or substantially immobilize a patient's foot during ambulation following such treatment because relative movements of the joints of the lower extremities as occur during natural ambulation tend to aggravate the initial trauma. The problem is especially compounded by the need to maintain costs of medical treatment within acceptable limits and by the relatively short period of time during which the shoes are to be used. In this respect, it is important to note that casts, bandaging and swelling commonly distort the shape of the human foot thereby complicating the task of foot stabilization and necessitating that a wide range of various sized shoes be maintained. It will be appreciated that these latter factors dictate a shoe which is relatively uncomplex and thereby inexpensive to manufacture.
In order to balance the above-described competing factors, health shoes have been heretofore presented having a rigid sole of unitary construction, typically of wood, for stably supporting the user's foot, such shoes further having an open-toe, enclosed heel upper mounted as a loop atop the sole for stably securing the user's foot to the shoe when placed therein. A major disadvantage of such construction is that the rigid sole causes an awkward gait rendering the shoe extremely uncomfortable and substantially increasing the risk that unsupervised patients will omit use thereof. Another major disadvantage of known health shoes is that the rigid unitary construction has precluded effective long-lasting attachment of the plastic upper to the shoe. During use, the enhanced forces caused by the awkward ambulation inherent to rigid construction tends to destroy conventional fastening bonds provided by stitches, staples and adhesives thereby eliminating the ability of the upper to stably secure the user's foot to the sole.
It is also important to note that shoes having flexible soles have been presented which are adapted to receive a cast foot, commonly referred to as "cast shoes". Cast shoes, however, rely upon the stability afforded by the cast and are therefore inherently unable to function as a post-op shoe.